'& B" THE ?--.- sv y y . f r j "PAGES 9 TO 16. jr. ;: SECOHD PART. i l CHINESE CRUELTIES. The Courts, Prisons and Punish ments of the Celestial Land. EYEN "WITNESSES ARE TORTURED. 'Graphic Description of the Horrible Slicing Process. HOW CHINESE JUDGES MAEE FOETUHES COKRESrOSDEXCE OF Till DISPATCH.1 Curios, CniiTA, February 2. Hor rible! horrible!! horrible!!! are the cruelties of Chinese justice I I grew sick while watch in; the tor ture of a wit ness at the courts here in Canton to day, and I had to leave the place for fearl should faint away. The man was brought into the court in a basket. His arms were chained be- hind him. His feet were manacled so In the SlocLs, that the heavy iron had cut through the skin, and there was a chain also about his neck. He had refused to testily, and had been tortured before until he was now pale and sick. He was thrown from the basket onto the floor in front of a tall Mandarin judge, dressed in a long silk gown and wear ing a round black cap with a button on the crown. The irons were taken off and the man was forced into a kneeling posture on the stone floor. He plead that he was sick, that he knew nothing, and he begged they would not punish him farther. The judge said a word and three burly Chinamen grasped him. They carried him tg the side of the court, where a bench about four feet long and a foot wide was lying. They put this bench on end against a pillar, and, then taking the prisoner, forced him down upon his knees before it so that the board of the .bench rested against his back and between A CniXESE his shoulders. He was barefooted. They pulled his wide pantaloons up to bis thighs, and, bending up his legs, tied his big toes to the top legs of the bench so that the bare skin of his knees rested on the stones The bench extended some distance above the back of his head and near the end a hole had been bored about an inch in diameter. Through this his cue was pulled, forcing his head tight against the board and stretching his neck so that the cords stood out like whips. His arms were twisted behind the bench, stretched backward and upward and held there by strings ti I to the thumbs. A heavy, sharp chain with iron links about two inches wide was then brought and put Sringlna in Ote Prisoner. under his bare knees. He was to be kept with his whole weight resting on this chain and held up by his thumbs, his big toes and his me until he confessed. The torture was terrible. His eyes almoststarted from their sockets, his face twitched and his moaning made me sick. More Horror. Among the other tortures I witnessed was the pounding a man's cheek with a leather clapper until the blood oozed from his mouth. This clapper was made of two pieces of leather of the thickness and twice the width of a harness tug, fastened to a third piece of leather as a handle. The whole affair was not more than a foot long, but it is more brutal than though it was made of iron. It is used largely in the pun ishment of women and it not infrequently breaks the jaws and knocks out the teeth. Thisprisoner was suspected of being en gaged in smuggling opium and he denied being guilty. He was whipped thus on the jaws and then bambooed. This bamboo was split down the middle like a tuning fork. It whUilcd as it flew through the air and it clapped the skin with the noise of a pistol snot. The bare-armed jailer counted each "blow. The long-cued, silk-gowned, sore-eyed judge looked complacently on, andl saw no signs of pity in the stolid faces of the crowd. A Chinese Conrt Room. Let me give you a picture of this Chineso court room. It is one of many in Canton and the largest. "We passed through room alter room and aisle after aisle of low, nar row buildings to get to it. There was a court in front of it and around this in nar row cells sat the clerks and employes of the judge. The room was open at the front, paved with stone, and it had only a table and a chair or two. Thero are no lawyers in China and the judge has unlimited power, prvvideiThe does not transgress the code. , Chipa has a code of Jaws hundreds of years old, of which a new edition is pub- f '.d eTcl7 five years, and in which the e T4 x n JlVCl'V I 1"1 JJW If jj U f& M penalties ior the minntest crimes are regu lated. It is fuller of more horrible sen tences than the Newgate calendar, and the judges of China have more power in the examining of witnesses than the most brutal of tyrants. There is no jury and the court room is as bare as a barn. Just behind where I stood were a number of the imple- I ments of torture ready for use and all uiowia me zuarKS oi wear auu icai. t One, which my guide said was very bad, was made of a bar of wood six feet long sup ported by two upright wooden pillars. The prisoner was made to kneel under this with the back of his neck touching the bar and his arms stretched out along it 'These are tied by cords to the bar and as he kneels with liis bare knees upon the chain such as I saw a few moments later, for the obdurate witness a third bar is placed across the legs back of the knees and two men stand upon it, thus forcing the flesh into the chains. The ankles are sometimes crushed by a similar bar placed across them. Cruel Inrrniton. 1 believe that the Chinese heart is natur ally cruel, and in looking over the Peking Gazette I'see that the tortures of the middle ages are common here, and -that now and then a judge astonishes even the Chinamen themselves by the refinement of his punish ments. Instances are given where the fingers are wrapped in oiled rags and burnt, and one magistrate, some time ago, fastened two criminals to boards by nails driven through their palms. Compelling men to kneel on pounded glass is noted, and this kneeling on chains with links a shaip as knives is common. "Williams tells of a magistrate who put a man into a coffin and kept him there until he was suffocated, and he gives the instance of a Judge who used beds of iron, boiling water and redhot spikes in his cruelties. At Shanghai I was shown a wooden cage be tween five and six feet high, just high enough to inclose the body of a man. It was made of four posts with a thick board set into the top. This board was made of two pieces so ar ranged that it could be taken Out and a man's neck be inclosed in the hole in "its center. At the bottom it had cross bars several inches above the ground and the top was so graduated .that the man inclosed within it must stand' upon Ms tcei. His hands were tied, and this lo.-tuie is terrible; In some instances men are left to starve to death in such cages, and this cage had con tained a-prisoner only a few days before. It had a piece of straw matting stretched over the top ot it, whicti the wife of the last crim inal had put there to protect his bare head from the raysol the sun. Infernal Cases. At the Shanghai prison I saw cages which looked as though they might have been pens for the carrying of hogs to a county fair. These were so low that a man could not sit up in them, and it is in these that criminals are often carried to execution. These had been used the day before for the caging of criminals, and I took a look at the prisoners COURT. who had been taken from them to the jail. I wanted to so through this prison but I was told that if I did I would probablv have my clothes torn from me by the prisoners, as they were a bad lot and had killed their jailer afew days before. I looked through a hole in the door and saw the most brutal faces I have as yet seen in China. Themen were chained to the wall like wild beasts 1 and some of them had chains abont their necks as well as their feet. Each prison has its dead house connected with it, and deaths from semi-starvation and torture are not uncommon. The jailers make a large part of their salary by squeez ing, and money will do as mnch and more for the criminal in China than it will in America. Judges sometimes pay $30,000 and $10, 000 for their appointment', and he is a poor money maker who does not get rich during his term. The Tantoi of Shang hai gets a salary of about 1,000 and his office is estimated to be worth more than $100,000 a year. The Commissioner of the Customs at Tiestsin nominally receives a salary of about the same size, but'l am told that "he makes about $200,000 a year, and his profits all come from bribes or squeezes. This system of squeezing goes through the whole course of Chinese officialdom and the jailers exact money from the relatives of the criminals. Thcy have the right to sell the food to the criminals and "they make them pay high prices. If they cannot pay they must in many cases go without. The criminals cook for themselves in the jail and they are al lowed about 2 cents a day for fnel. They have an allowance by the law of rice, but A Chinese Thief. the jailor gives them this or not as he pleases. The Execution Ground. Three coolies carried me in a chair from the court in Canton to the execution ground and I had a chat with the executioner. He was a nasty, dirty, blood-thirsty looking fellow, with hair an inch long standing out like bristles over the front of his head and about his cue. He had not been busy for several days, and he took delight in ex plaining to me the uses of the heavy sword and the scientific cuts which he made with it. This sword was about four feet long. It has a blade as sharp as a razor ana it is about a quarter of an inch thick at the back and more than two inches wide. He used both hands in swinging it about, and he told me that my neck would be an easv one to slice off, but that he would not like to have to cut up my thin frame by the slicing process. This execution ground of Canton is used as a crockery factory, and the making of pots goes on when "executions are not in progress. It is a narrow court between two high walls, on the banks of the Canton river, and the heads are cut off in the open air. Upon my asking what was done with the lipids of the criminals, he told me, through my interpreter, that they were often thrown into jars of quicklime, and thaf he would take one out and show me for the sum of 10 cents. In the interest of your paper I subscribed this amount, and he pulled out a half-eaten -skull by the pigtail, and showed its ghastly ugliness to me. There were about a dozen of these earthen jars at the back of this execution ground. They were of the size of a 20-gallon 'keg, and were covered with paper. They were full of heads, and probably represented a year's executions. As soon as the head is taken off it is car ried up to the magistrate or officer in charge and shown, and it is often exposed ina cage or on a pole as a warning to others. The cages in which the heads are put are of the size of little, bird cages, and when the heads' aretied to trees or poles they hang down by the cue. Slicing (o Death. At the back of this execution ground stood half U dozen wooden crosses. If you will take a piece of telegraph pole eight feet long and set a similar pole five feet long into it at right angles two feet from the top you will have the Chinese cross. It Is upon these crosses that the criminals are bound when thev are to underzo the punishment ofLingChior slicing to death, which is the sentence for all who murder a brother, a parent, a teacher, a husband or an uncle. The criminal is stripped and his feet are raised upon a brick or a stone. His cue is tied up to the cross and his arms are stretched out upon its arms. A British naval officer, whom I met at Hong Kong, described an execution of this kind which he witnessed a few weeks ago. "It made me feel very green at first," said he, "but after it was begun I could not keep my eyes off it. i have had the ex perience over again three times in my dreams, and I would not want to 'see it again. I had the best guide in. Canton, and we saw the execution from the roof of one of the buildings beside the execution ground. There were two criminals, and it WW1 Chinese Torture. took about 30 minutes to cut each of them to -pieces. The first cuts sliced off the cheeks and the second the evebrows. After these a man held a fan before the faces of the prisoners, and all we could see of them was the blood running down upon their bodies. The next cut was of the flesh be tween the hand and the elbow, and the arteries were fiist bound above the places cut so that the man would not bleed to death before the ceremony was completed. Then the shoulders were cut off. Then the flesh of the thighs and after this the calves of the legs. The seventeenth and eighteenth cuts removed the hands, and the last cut took the head from the body. "In both cases themen did not faint awav. The pain was too terrible. They could not crjr out, as they were gagged, and their writhings were horrible. The last cut killed them.' Other Mild Method.. I might fill another column with the sto- r?P T l" heard of Chinesunishraetrts4 and crime. The bamboo, which grows to the height of SO feet . and upward, gets its entire growth in a few weekV I have heard of prisoners being tied over plants and of these growing through them. For certain offenses prisoners are buried up to their necks, and those who go by them are ex pected to add a clod to the pile. They do not, 1 am told, hesitate to do this, and this Chinese civilization, founded upon Buddh ism, Confucianism and so-called literary culture, is productive of such men and such scenes. Do you wonder that there is room for missionaries? I don't. Fbank G. Cabpexieb. THE AET OP MESIOEI. Ability to Recall Faces Not n Gangs of a Man's Mental Cnpitclijr. Certain questions of public interest ex hibit a tendency to establish a regular peri odic orbit in the process of their discussion. Among these is the problem of memory, and the methods of its cultivation. The savage or semi-civilized man has not very great tax upon memory. His arts are simple, and the store of facts which he has to dispose of come well within the limits of his intel lectual powers. But as soon as schools are organized, then a novel and unaccustomed task is put upon men. They are called upon to remember not only the facts with which they have been made familiar by practical experience in an experimental way, but also to retain a host of mere state ments concerning which they have no prac tical experience whatsoever. In demanding this new form of memory, we go apart from the natural method of acquiring informa tion, and it is no reason for surprise that we find information acquired in this unnatural way to be of a very flectingcharacter. One of the great difficulties in our school system arises from the existing diversitv in the method nnd capacity for remembering which are found in different minds. There is a disposition on the part of schoolmasters to assume that the measure of memory is a fit gauge as to the intellectual powers of the student. A boy or girl who can acquire lessons and repeat their statements in a clear manner is commonly assumed to be abler than another who fails in this power. The studies of Mr. Francis Galton on visual ized memory, as well as numerous inquiries into the measure in which distinguished men have the power of remembering a great store of facts, clearly indicate that simple memory is the most imperfect gauge as to the mental capacity of people. Some per sons, even those of but moderate intellectual powers, have a capacity for visualizing mat ters retained in the memory in such a way that they can readily be called to mind in a clear fashion. Other persons, .including many who are of great natural power, are entirely destitute of this'accomplishment. THE SHAD IN SEASON. Poetical Version of the .Unking; of That De licious Fisb. Sew York nerald.t The fish was delicious, and the two epic ures relished it to the fullest extent, but he of the pessimistic turn remarked: "Shad nlways suggests to me the idea that nature was in a hurry when she got to that part of her work, took a lot of excellent material and just pinned it together.-" "Ah!" said the optimist, "you can't have seen the poetical version of the matter." Then he recited: "When the angels made shad The devil was mad, For it seemed such a feast oi delight; So, to ruin the scheme. He jumped into the stream And stuck.ro the bones out of spite. "When the strawberry red First illumined Its bod The angels looked down, and were clad. Bnt the devil, 'tis said, ' Fairly ponnded bis hqad, For he'd used all his bones on the shad." Ik relieving muscular and nervous, dis eases, Salvation Oil can not be over-esti- mntori - r J . PITTSBURG, gTJNDAT, NYE TO WMAMAKER. He Orders a Kew Snit and Accident allr Refers to a Postoffice. HIS KIND EEGARDS TO HARRISON. One Self-Hade American Writes Fully and i'rankly to Another, GEOYEE CLEVELAND AS A" HUMOEIST rWBITTOf FOB TUB DISPATCH. 1 St. Patbick's Day, in the ) Gbay of Early Mobitino. General John 'Winimaker, Washington, D. C: 7 Dear Sie I called at your general store in Philadelphia while in your city, in order to speak to you as between man and man with regard to a new snit of ready made clothing which I con tent plated going into this spring at an early date. I was shocked and chagrined to learn that you were not at home, but in Washington, D. C. Hence I write to you in regard to the matter, instead of dealing with one of your clerks down at the store. I ordered a suit, if you will remember, some yeais ago, when I was postmaster at Laramie City, Wyo. I was in the depart ment there for some time and gave good sat isfaction. People write me that they have, never experienced such an era of prosperity since the town was laid out as they did when I was at the helm of the postoffice there. QUITE A SUIT. The suit was, a plain business suit, dow1 ered with a wild and wealthy profusion of pockets, many of which I did not at that time really need. It was a cutaway coat with horn buttons and long princess trous ers of the same, held in place by means of elastic .suspenders in pigeon-breast shades, with heliotrope buttons on them. I wore this suit through my entire adminis tration, also through the places where it came most in contact with foreign sub; stances. I now apply o you once more for a suit that shall be durable and plain, and yet fix the eye of a stranger at once and compel him to say, "There is a thorough gentleman. There is a man worthy of any office within the gift of the Federal Govern ment." So if you will be kind enough to send me some samples of your goods, with rules lor self measurement, also stating at the same time what, if anything, has been done about the postoffice at New York, you will do me a favor and at the same time you will not do yonrself any harm. That is one thing that I like about me. Nobody ever did me Sill AJ?, Postmaster. a favor that he didn't do well out of it be fore he got through. Have you had any talk vet with the President about the N. Y. P. O."? My home now is not far from the post office in New York and T pay taxes there. "Writing these pieces does not take all my time and so I had thought that wc might help each other perhaps, if yon feel that way about it. I could help .you to intro duce your goods among our best people in New York,-with whom I am very thick. TAFrY PEOMISED. I could also say pleasant things about you in the press, and while I would hate to have you think that I would prostitute iny won derful talents by swapping kind words for a postoffice, it would surely do you no harm to add my large influence among the-more refined people of New York, to your own wide acquaintance, and I am sure that I can help you to build up a nice tradewith our best people in New York, many of whom are already dissatisfied with prices here. I would want a plain business suit that would also look well for Sundays. I gener ally fix up for Sundays, and sp'end the day in self-communion and silent admiration of my past life. I was a poor boy, Mr. Wana niaker, with large olive green freckles on the back of my neck. I have fought my way up through a wilderness of stumbling blocks, setbacks and drawbacks, Mr. "Wana xnaker, until to-day you see me beloved and admired by one and all, vet modest and un assuming as a little dewdrop on the petal of a pumpkin blossom. r Both of us know what it is, General, to thump along through an adverse and sin curbed world. I admit that I have made mistakes, but not as a postmaster. I have stepped aside Severa times from what is called the correct thine in Philadelphia, and may possibly do so again, but not of- . ficially. I have done things that I am sorry for, but my whole nature seems to demand excitement, and I would frequently sit up till nearly 11 o'clock, frol icking ' and having fun with people , who enjoyed having lun, and who reveled in my sunny smile. But that was after office hours, Mr. "Wanamaker. After I had hung the cauceline btamp on a nail, after I had checked up the M. O. B., and put mucilage on the secpnd-hand stamps, I would issue forth and give the evening up to the keenest enjoyment, sometimes at the beanbag tour ment, or anon at the free reading room, where I would sometimes meet other people. But all that is passed now. A GOOD MEMOEY. A dark shade of goods with an invisible checkjn the pocket of the vest, would suit me very well. I wear a tail coat and a very long lithe pant. In postoffice work I dress plainly but neatly, liemembcr me to the administration, and say that while unusual ly busy this season, I have not allowed pros perity to crowd the administration out of my memory. I was auite eorrv not to htivo sppn'vnn. when las.t I was in Philadelphia, for I know tnat wevouTd have pleased each other. I am a frank) open-faced, self-made man who forgot to order sufficient hair while putting up the job. lam easy to get acquainted with and hard to shake off. You can 'always have fun with me if you go at it right, John, and yet there are few men who can knockHhe tar'outof a general deliverV'win- j T MARCH 31, 1889. dow equal to me. T do not allow business cares to weigh on me too heavily. My grocer is generally a more thoughtful and chastened looking man than I am, and yet I can distribute more lower case mail in an hour than anybodyyou ever saw. I would also want two pairs of seal brown socks with eight day clocks of some contrasting color. Doubtless the President may have some one in his mind lor the New York postoffice, some one -who will shine more in society, perhaps, 'some one who will please the eye" more for the moment; but what we want for that position is a pure, good man, who loves the old flag and who wants to see a good postoffice in New York, where a man can go and present a money order without being indicted by a grand jury before ha can get away. ' ONE SAD MISTAKE. I believe, General, that a man who leads agood Christian life, ought not to be jumped ou and hooted and trod into the earth just because he has presented a money order at the New York office for payment. "We are all liable to make mistakes. I presented a money order once at the New York office, thinking the office would be as eager to pay an order as it was to sell me one, but I was young then and had seen very little of the world. Anybody'could fool me with a kind word then. Now I have remittances sent to tne by freight inside a joint of gas pipe and I don't have to wait so long. My hired man, who mows the lawn and salts the hens at my chalet-by-the-sea, will also want a suit of clothes as the weather gets warmer. I wish you would figure on a suit for him a suit that will look better than it really is, and cost very little, will do. The cost may he a mere bagatelle. Could you arrange it so that the cost would be a mere bagatelle? " I have been elected also to an office, at one time, by tho people themselves. I say this to show you that I am well thought of by my neighbors. My election was rather a surprise to some. It showed that even then, young and poor as'I was, I was a shrewd politician and well calculated to succeed. "We combined three elements in such a way as to bring out not only the full strength "ot the party, but also to draw some from the other party. These three elements consisted of: First 'Enemies of the other man. Second Bivals who wanted to see him pnt under the sod. m Third Creditors who saw no way of get ting their pay unless I was elected. "With these elements we succeeded with out the aid of money in pnrifying the bal lot and electing a good man. A PEBT,INEiTT QUEEY. Do you publish a catalogue and price list of your general store in Philadelphia? "We trade- now with New York honses almost ex clusively, but I am told that your prices are reasonable and your goods all right, also that we can get anything in your place from a tooth brush to a straw ride. Mr. Mac "Veagh told me that you were a general dealer in glass, putty, lingerie, road scrapers, perfumery, hard and soft coal, cut flowers, live stock, neckwear, real estate, gum drops, guano, teething rings, hides and pelts, raoxie, seamless burial caskets, marsh mallows, curled hair mattresses, health fdod, fence nails, golden syrup, saddles, soda water and tar roofing. Also that, at your mammoth store, undertaking, embalm ing and ice.cream in all their branches could be participated in. 1 wish you could send me a catalogue and price list and also keep it as quiet as possi ble, fori would not wish to be discovered by heavy New 'York dealers in the act of buying ray groceries in Philadelphia. More especially would this be the case should I accept' the portfolio of the New York post office, a position to which I have' given no thought whate'ver. hoping the President would settle on some more available, but YlPrnilTl Tana w.rtWl.'w mnn - . L-2lnywy, -wiH-you-do-ms -tiieTavoFTtf" Keep mis letter out ot the hands of the press, for should it get into' the' pnhlic prints I would never hear'the last of it. Mr. Cleveland has kindly offered to give me anything within the gift of the Govern ment, but I fear he is chaffing me. "What do you think? AM. WELt AT HOME. "We are all quite well nt home, barring slight restlessness among our hens at night, caused by the presence of an unknown per son in the barn, who is liable some day to go home with his pancreas wrapped up in an old-fpshioned magazine. Seeding has al ready begun here, and farmers are feeling jubilant. The streams are released from their icy fetters nnd go laughing and frol l'cking adown the grassy meads. Spring lambs are beginning to do the hillsides, and horseradish made from Swedish turnips and capsicum tine, is to be had. V W . . La Fajetle Musser in Sis Special Train. La Favette Musser was on onr streets Friday, looking hearty. Lafe rode down from Forty-second street to City Hall on the Elevated train, accompanied by a new hive of bees, which he desired to turn in on sub scription at Newspaper Bow. He had a special car all the way down. Call again, Lafe. STEBEOPTICOIT ADVEBTISISG. However, General. I have allowed myself to wander a little. Excuse this long letter and excuse my delay in writing, too, for I just could not do it before and do it as I wanted to. Can I do anything for you in an advertising way? I travel a great deal and meet thebest people everywhere. Next year I shall use a stcreopticon on the stage, I think, and could work in a little friendly notice on one of these slides if you thought best. Could also speak of ray clothes in public and say I got them at your place. So goodby, !Bn.T. Nye. Dictated letter. P. S. "Would iJay Gould be accepted by the Government as one of my bondsmen tn case I should take the N. Y. P. O. Port folio? He is a great friend aud constant reader of mine. B. N. 'Nother P. S. In speaking to General Harrison about this matter you might say that I was the first man to suggest his name for the Presidency. This is not so, but any thing I can do for you in a similar wav I will cheerfullv do. B. N. Mite the Stars. Minneapolis Tribune. "Miss Clara," he murmured fondly, "can you tell me why your eyes are like the stars?" "No. "Why are they?" "Because they shine so brightly." "Ah! thanks. But you are like the stars, too, Mr. Dally." "Why, may I ask?" "Because yon stay until daybreak." And shortly afterward his footsteps could have been beard as they pattered along the board walk. Spite. ewYorkSniul MUs Mezzo I -hear the" soprano at St. Basil's Church has lost her baby. ItjvalfcSoprano Is ,tbat so?i' She imust 3 II v f.wL Si I XffflfrwrsV 8 II THE AGE OF WOMEN. Mrs. Frank Eeslie Discusses When a lady Ceases to be Young. AS I0DTH CANNOT BE RETAINED, Their True Endeavors Should he to Grow Mature Gracefully. CHAEJIS OP I0DNG AND OLD C0MPAEED rWEITIEX FOn TOE DISPATCII.J AYS the proverb: "A woman is asbld as she looks and a man is as young as he feels," but like many other widely-accepted "glit tering generalities," it will not 'walk 'on all fours. For Oven a girl of IS may have an old look and a woman of 50 may have a young look, and a super sensitive person, especially if she lives in the rush and whirl of a city life, will look years younger or older in a few hours, ac cording to her environment. It is one of the oddest things in this queer world, this importance attached to the question of age. The first thing we ask about a proposed ac quaintance is: "What age is he or she? The commonest form of social gossip is the telling in confidence of the age of some lady who is older than she appears. The one item mentioned in a burial notice is the age of the deceased, and a very frequent remark when a death is announced is, I wonder if they will printMier age! Another curious point is that dislike or malice always exaggerates the age of its ob ject, and kindly or charitable feeling al ways minimizes it. It is evident, then, that we all desire for ourselves and our friends the reputation of youth, and that there is something disparaging and unattractive in speaking of a person as old or even middle aged. Arising from this instinct, no doubt, we have the strncgle to appear young so noticeable and so piteous not only in what we call society, but in all classes of the com munity. ISO LONGER FIFTEES-. I sat mournfully by one day at a mil liner's while she tried a bine satin and vel vet sailor hat with long streamers on a lady of abont 0 years old, whose weight must certainly have reached 200, and whose great red face suggested unlimited roast beef and port wine. The lady bought the hat and went away, and I mildly inquired of the-milliner if she really thought it was, the most suitable headgear she conld have recommended. She smiled shrewdly and said: "The only other thing she would look at was a bebee bonnet, and that, she concluded, was too old for her. She does not realize that she is no longer 15." That little incident made a deep im pression on me, as throwing a broad light upon one phase of feminine human nature. The woman does not, or will not, "realize that she is no longer 15," and struggles to prevent other people from reaiizingit either. Is it, then, so much better to be 15 thaa 50, and why? , "Why'shouldone cling to sailor hats and bebee bonnets instead of assuming the rich and dignified headgear of middle lite? "Why ia-Yonth the one ihintf in "lie nintrtrlpii nnd follgllt !6r ugainst all odds? And how is it .women, otherwise sensible, can yield to the delusion that youthful dresslends'a youthful appearance to middle age? Lookiifg about me to see how these questions were answered by the elder ladles of my acquaintance, I was considerably puzzled to determine which they were. Many of the girls and women, whose ages I happened to know, looked older in both form and figure than others whom I suspected to be their seniors, and again I found that many of my ac quaintances varied so much from time to time that I had to place them afresh at each interview. YOUTH'S CIIABMS. But after all, what is the charm of youth? Is it physical, simply? Of course, clear eyes and skin, round, firm outlines, and a certain freshness cf lips and cheek are very lovely, but it is by no means all young girls, especially in cities, who possess them. Is it manners? There is nothing sweeter than the half timid yet well trained manner of an ingenuous girl, nothing prettier than her naive deference to her elders and ready self effacement, but still I must prefer for my own part the gracious tact and quickness that come only by experience, the ready ad justment of any 'little social awkwardness, the self poise that knows just what to say' and do and leave undone, of the mature man or woman. And surely it is not the intellect and conversational powers of youth to which we so lovingly cling. The crude ideas, the impossible theories, the in nocent conviction of originality while ut tering the baldest truisms, the misplaced credulity or the sweeping icouoclasm are these the conditions of mental development in which we would remain? "What then? For, spite of alllmy wasted words, spite of the reason one can bring to bear upon the matter, the foolish fact re mains, and no doubt will remain, that youth is a possession to be clung to as long as possible and teigned as much longer as inavbe. But since feigning is useless and long possession is impossible, why will hot those who no longer are young consent to beautily and enrich middle age with its own at tractions? Why do not those whohave out grown the sailor hats invent and wear charming bonnets carefully suited to the new conditions? "Why does not Miss Chick cease to babble childishly and study to have something to say that will really amuse or please or attract the men of her own age, and so leave the boys alone? "When shall we say of a friend: "Oh, she is charming. You will like her ever so much, for she is 50 years old, and has all the varied means oi making herself agreeable that her years naturally bring. She has seen so much and read so much and thought so much that it is a liberal education to know her." Ah, when? HOW TO GROW OLD. Au contraire, 1 once asked an English man if he did not think a certain lady of about 30 years old very pretty. "Pretty! "Why, she's as gray as a badger," replied he, reterrinfj: to the few threads of silver that gave piquancy to her fresh, bright face. But the old man or woman who has bad the tact and the wit to see the question in its true light, and deal with it intelligently, and who has grown old gracefully and wise ly, is a treasure not enough to be valued by those who enjoy it. For there is a ripened sweetness in such a life, a calm acceptance of those evils or sorrows against which we younger ones struggle so wildly and so hopelessly; a peace passing understanding, that like an attar diffuses itself on every side; experience, wisdom and judgment, that only long years ending in quiet thoughtfulness can give. Jlave you such a mother or such a grand mother? Make much of her, love her, tell her that tou love her, cherish her at once reverently and tenderly, let every day that f tosses add to the store of happy memories aid by for the time when her chair shall be vacant, her dear, tremulous hand forever still and her voice forever hushed. And remember as your own years pile themselves one upon another that they are building the monument whereby in time to come those who come after will remember you, and let them not say as they inrn from it .rith a pitying smile. She did not realize that she was no longer 15. mks.Fba!te: Leslie. SB re-LILYROGHOW (A Legend of -WRITTEN FOB - BrA.-rjRic03 ' ' ' ' CHAETEK Till. K THE MLTJPLTJCKED FB02f BOpiON. It was a striking fnneral scene which fol lowed this sudden and tragic close of old Bochon's career; but we may not describe if! here, more than to say that a motley crowd of rough people came together to do the lost solemn honors to their king. The history; of bochon's exploits would read like some buccaneer romance, indeed it would be little less. Publicly his story is pot so well known as La Fitte's, but in its 'details there is far more of the picturesque, the daring and the desperate than can be found in the Batrratarian pirate'sad ventures. He was one of the few born leaders of men and he was born to lead the wild, reckless ruffians of the southern coast at a time when that coast was a hive of outlaws, whose swarm was composed of every grade of criminals from rnnaway slaves to the most desperate murderers and robbers. His personalitv gave him easy command, and the wealth at his disposal set him as if on a throne in a part of our country where at that time law was an unknown factor in life. Tradition has preserved in the Bay St. Louis region a quite legible trace.of .the Bochon regime, and the de scendants of the Garcins still dwell iu the remote and even now lawless fastnesses of Honey Island. As a matter of cdurse there were many conspiracies against Bochon's power, and Garcin's was, perhaps, the strongest of these in both numbers and character; but like all the rest it failed, as we have seen. Fortunately for Orton, his visit to the Bay St. Louis region was jost at the culmination of Garcin's mutiny, and owing to the lively imagination of Captain Victor he had been taken for a Government official in disguise whose mission was to cap ture old Bochon. Under almost any other circumstance the young man would have come to grief soon after his arrival at Bayou Gallere. As it was, we have seen how apparently the merest turn of chance bore him through alive. It is from a part A SESTIMENTAL BATTLE. of his journal and from a few letters writ ten by him to his father that I have been able to write the outline of this story. No stretch of the imagination is required to realize the situation in which Bochon's death left Orton and Mile. Felicie. On one hand there -was a certain sort of relief in knowing that the huge, fiery-tempered, rough and roaring old lord of the place was no more; but on the other hand with Bochon dead there was no protection against the lawless men of the region. Orton had contracted with Captain Victor to return for him, but as we know, Victor could never return, for, along with Zozo, he lay at the bottom of the lake. Through trusted servants of the honsehold it soon became known that danger to Bochon place was brewing in the neighbor hood. Orton was quite powerful to reach the. people who could have controlled the movemenLand he was practically without "mean's of defence; Having but a few men, mostly negro slaves, to depend upon for as sistance in any emergency.' A thing happened (soon after Bochoh's death) which almost drove Ortqn mad with a sense of the dreadful danger it boded to Felicie. ' He and Felicie were standing at the window, a place which since their be trothal had become very dear to them, and for the moment bad quite forgotten the threatening aspect of their surroundings. They had been qnietly planning to set. sail for New Orleans with the first favorable breeze; bnt just now they were exchanging those' light. jsweet phrases known to lovers since the"beginning. By the merest chance Orton's eye discovered a lurking form and a leveled gun just in time to thrust Felicie rudely aside. The bullet sang through the window, cutting the space filled a second be fore by the warm breast of the girl. It was a narrow escape from certain death, for trie aim of Lalie Garcin had been steady and true. . Up to this time it had been thought that Bobo was the murderer of old Bochon, the slave's sudden disappearance at the same time leaning strength to the suspicion; but it now flashed into Orton's mind with the force of certainty that Lalie ha'd sworn ven geance againstihe family. The expression of her face' he' could never forget as she glared at Felicie through the sight of that deadly gun. It was a look of such intense and flaming passion, of such dark and mer ciless hatred, that it impressed him with the suddenness and power of a blood-curdling revelation. From that moment there was not a' point, of time, waking or sleepinz, that Orton could rid himself of the dreadful vision of that face with its burning eyes and set, ashen features. He kept Felicie within doors' and away from the windows; every noise frightened him as though he ha'd been the veriest coward in the world. He ordered a watch to be kept on the woods, bnt he felt the insecurity ot depending upon negroes in such nn emergency. Dreadful, indeed, became the isolation and remoteness of Bay St Louis now. The romance was all go'ne, and in its stead the horrible reality of an utterly lawless region was.assertinp itself. Even the songs of the mocking blrdsringing out gailr Jrom the perfumed shadows of the magnolia foliage, had lost their charm, and the ceaseless roar of the bay had a dreary, lonelv strain in it suggestive of the great distance between the solitary mansion and any, center of safe, wholesome .human society. Never before had Orion been made to realize the value of great, cities and dense "populations; cer tainly he never before had felt how specious and vain is that romance which clothes with a mist of nnrnle and ,gold the life of those who prefer Bay St. Louis. T3333 MSPATCU BT - THOMTSOK". solitude and lawlessness to the sweet, tanlt comforts of the highest civilization. It now ofcnipfl TOnr strange to him that Felicia could hesitate for a. moment to leave a placs made; doublv dreadful;, still she did hesi tate to take "a steprwhich,appeared to" be tb . only safe one left for hen If the. deadly enemy, whose shot was the constantly brood ing terror of the household, had been a man, Ortori Would have taken heroic measures at once; but to his; chivalrous nature ths thouiijjt of killing: a giri, even in self-tb-fense;was revolting, and especially so whea the girl was Xalie Garcin. Moreover, h felt in a degree the justification, from her point of view, of the desperate course sh was taking. It was impossible, of course, for a person like Lalie Garcln to philoso phize; she could see only the facts as they appeared, and to her the household at Bochon place stood responsible for the deso lation in which she now found herself. The Bochon slaves began to disappear, betaking themselves to freedom and tho woods. There was no one now to follow them with gun and blood-bounds scurry ing after them and hurrying them through marsh and swamp until they were caught, flogged and brought back to intenser slav ery. It .was but natural, indeed, that all the negroes should feel in sympathy with, Garcin; many of them-joined him on Honey Island, where they became freebooters of the most desperate kind. But Lalie Garcia, making her home with a miserable od crono (who a a fortune-teller aud charm doctress dwelt in a cabin in the midst of,a swamp on Bavou Galere), evaded her father's authority and pursued the dark purpose which had become the one thought ot her life. The tradition of her killing; Bochon and of the other acts in the tragedy she evolvedls still the common property of the French speaking negroes of all the Bay St. Louis region. Orton at length prevailed upon Felicie to set out with him in a small sloop for New Orleans. He found five faithful sailors to man the craft, and preparations went for ward rapidly, but with greatest secrecy, at it was becoming more and more apparent that sooner or later the destruction of Bochon place would be accomplished by Garcin and his coadjutors. Indeed, it had come to Orton's ear, and he felt the force of it, that Garcin now thought Orton's mis sion, instead of being direct against Bochon, had been for his own destruction, and tha in fact the young artist had treacherously connived at Bochon's murderous raid upon, his premises. Such a condition of things left Orton no alternative but flight, and even this would be attended by extreme dangers. Anything, however, was prefer able to the awful suspense.-doubt and dread that hung about the place; it was as if- aa invisible and invulnerable foe were behind every tuft of palmetto or veiled by every festoon of Spanish moss in all the forest. Felicie Bochon had been reared in the midst of startling incidents and lawless pro ceedings, but she had seen very little or tha worst features of the life around her, nor had she ever before felt the presence of real danger to herself. At first she was dazed and helpless under the effect of old Bochon's shocking death, and even the attempt on her own " life scarcely roused her to a full realization, of her situation. It was not until a second shot aimed at her had grazed Orton's temple, as they were walking through an open hall, that she became quita willing to sail for New Orleans and leave behind her forever the dreary, shady, bird haunted and bloom-covered old home by the bay. They embarked at midnight, just as the moon, a heavy silver crescent, had cut through a bank, of scudding gray clouds. Their little sloop already had her canvas up, and, although the wind was not favora ble, they hoped to make their way out of the bay before daylight. Bocking idly ou the water near bv lay the little white sailboat which had attracted Orion's attention on the day of his arrival. ' The yellow stern-board with its delicate lily gleamed brightly under the moon' rays. It was a beautiful vessel, graceful in lines as a swan, riding the bubbling waves with a lightness that loresaid the speed with which it could sail. This boat had been Felicie's own, and to her it was as dear as if it had been endowed, with life and with the power to'return her affection. As thesloop's sail began to draw and the vessel to move slowly away, the gfrl stretched forth bee hands-over the gunwale as if to take the little craft in her arms. "My beautiful Lily," she murmured, "and my dear old home!" Orton had discovered before this that it "ras the little sailboat and not Mlle-Bochon that had real title to the name of The Lily, of Bochon. In truth he had found out that nearly everything that Victor had told him was merest fiction woven out of the plenti- ' ful films of the Creole imagination. The lovers stood upon deck watching Ihe familtar landscape upon shore Tall slowly, away from them. It would seem scarcely reasonable that, at such a moment and un der such a stress of circumstances, Mile.' Bochon could regret leaving the place; but, me reaaer musi not. lorget mat nonie, no matter how isolated or how different from', any other, has about it the endearing imag- ination of sacredness. Felicie wept, despite, the protestations and persuasions of the faithful maid-servants beside her. ' "Come below, Felicie," whispered Orlon;c, "you will be much in the way of the sailors here, and they heed all the deck room they . can get." She and ber maids followed him down into the cramped little hole called thet caum, wncre mcair wiu siaie ana Close. 3 "We may have to fight for our liberty il yet," he said, "and here Is the only place bt safety for you. Garcin's boats and , ' schooner lie just around the tont north. ward"; if they sight us we shall have a Chise . for lire, x Know yon are brave, Felicie,. tuereiorB you wm seep your seir-command. vo not come on uecs, no matter wnat hap pens. I cannotstay with yourl must heljlj io man me vessel, ue conrageourlor roi I as t s.
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